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I was rereading some older Waco stories and saw where a judge had denied a defense attorney's contention that the Waco arrest lacked probable cause. This aspect is something that got my attention from the get go.

So, I found the Texas organized crime law and tried (am still trying) to understand it.

Just because a Waco judge upheld probable cause in the "general warrant" type affidavits that were presented does not mean he is on solid ground. Note the dates of the article posted - arrests in 2004 and decisions upholding the need for individualized probable cause came in 2012.

I thought I had replied this morning, but I do not see it so I must have somehow exited before posting. I do think this a very good approach.

Thank you for initiating it.

Being appalled at “guilt by association” doesn’t get us there. We have to know what is overreach in the application of the law, and what is allowed by the law itself, much as we do not like the tone of the law itself.

I do not like civil asset forfeiture, I do not like RICO or the acronym is is known as in the Texas Statutes. Yet, for now at least, those statutes were enacted by the “people’s representative government”. We need to know who is at fault.

We can’t blame the city and county for laws that were enacted, only their own overreach of the same.

Then if the application we decry is still overreach, we have to go back to the legislature to remove laws that are in themselves problematic.

Yes, this is a very valuable approach to pursue.

The caveat is, that organized criminal gangs allow few methods the Founders would have envisioned, to shut them down and stop them from harming innocent citizens; for the innocent citizens they harm are even more victims, than those who the law might reach by overreach — especially in the later case, when it is the legitimately enacted law itself that allows some reach into the criminal enterprise.

Thanks again for this approach. I for one would like to know the extent to which the county might have exceeded its authority under the law, and what the law allows that we might find in itself oppressive.

I do not like oppressive laws. I do not like criminals who harm and oppress innocent civilians. We cannot allow extremes in either direction.

Servus, of course and again, thank you for your willingness to delve into this avenue of inquiry.